Friday, 21 March 2014

Let's all just take a break from the litany of literary blog posts that I've been barraging everyone with. This break takes the form of me making banana bread! Inspired in part by this which is hilarious and awesome. And everyone should watch. My friend at work made banana bread the other day, so I thought it couldn't be so hard that I couldn't manage it. I was almost wrong.

First off, here's the awesome new dress I was wearing when I made it. A good start to any baking experience is a nice dress. I then advise that you don't cover it with an apron or anything, even if you have one hanging next to you in your kitchen as that will detract from your enjoyment. Plus you're not going to spill anything, right?

For anyone who wants to do this, I used the recipe here which seemed joyously straightforward and comprised of ingredients that I already had. Therefore involved the least effort on my part, something I look for in all my recipes.

At this point I think I should mention that I don't currently own kitchen scales. So everything below is an act of amazing guesstimation.

Those look about right! I took that butter straight from the fridge, so it was somewhat difficult to 'cream'. So much so, in fact, that I popped it in the microwave for a couple of seconds to loosen that goose up. I have my suspicions that you are not supposed to do this, but my arm was about to drop off. I then had the comparatively easy job of mushing bananas, made difficult only by the fact that it was disgusting.

The main reason why I'm making this bread is because I am unable to eat the heinously overripe bananas that were in the kitchen. I didn't even really like holding them all that much. I also had one less banana than was called for, but I figured that since the other amounts were incorrect, one more couldn't hurt.
Then all of the liquid ingredients had to go together with my melty butter and sugar concoction and my disgusting banana mush.

This did not go well. The paprika did a death leap out of my cabinet and landed directly in the milk I had just poured out. I am sad to say that this could probably have been avoided since before I started it did exactly the same thing onto the empty counter and I had to spend quite a while sweeping paprika off the floor. I then looked at the cabinet, thought 'it's far too full in there!' and put it back in the exact same place. Same place I put it after I rinsed it. Because who has time for this?!

I really hope it's supposed to be this sloppy. It was very sloppy.

I then greased up two pans, because I don't read things. Turns out I actually have the right sized tin! Shame none of the ingredients are correct. Lets hope that doesn't stop it from being delicious!

And then I proceeded to use my 55 minute timer for a banana loaf that takes an hour to cook. Eddie got home and asked why I didn't use an electronic device as a timer, say like the one I used to take this very photo. You'll be pleased to know that I told him to shut up.

An hour and one reset timer later - check it out! It's not terrible! Which is a shame, as that might have been more amusing, but it actually tastes fairly good. I am as surprised as you are.

The next time I can stomach mushy bananas, I may very well make this. With some scales. And warmer butter.